Dutch Exodus Under Way

Escaping the stress of clogged roads, street violence and loss of faith in Holland’s once celebrated way of life, the Dutch middle classes are leaving the country in droves for the first time in living memory.
The new wave of educated migrants are quietly voting with their feet against a multicultural experiment long touted as a model for the world, but increasingly a warning of how good intentions can go wrong.
More people left the Netherlands in 2003 than arrived, ending a half-century cycle of surging immigration that has turned a tight-knit Nordic tribe into a multi-ethnic mosaic with three million people of foreign roots out of 16 million.
Ellen Bles, 43, a lawyer and banker who votes for the free-market Liberals, said the code of behaviour regulating daily life in the Netherlands was breaking down.
“People no longer know what to expect from each other. There are so many rules, but nobody sticks to them. They just do as they want. They just execute people on the streets, it’s shocking when you see this for the first time,” she said. “We’ve become so tolerant that everybody thinks they can fight their own wars here. Van Gogh is killed, and then people throw bombs at mosques and churches. It’s escalating because the police and the state aren’t doing anything about it.
“There’s a feeling of injustice that if you do things right, if you work hard and pay your taxes, you’re punished, and those who don’t are rewarded. People can come and live here illegally and get payments. How is that possible?”